[Page
1] IT
will perhaps be asked, why in this enlightened century
we desire to call attention to Alchemy, which, by the majority
of mankind, is looked upon as an array of vagaries, extravagancies and
superstitions, having been repeatedly ex cathedra declared to
be such by modern scientific authorities. To those who put implicit faith
in the infallibility of modern science we have no apology to offer; but
to the unprejudiced investigator we answer that Alchemy — if properly
understood — is a science embodying
the highest truths which a spiritually enlightened mortal may possibly attain,
and that a practical knowledge of them is of the highest importance for his
own eternal welfare and for the progression of mankind. Being a spiritual
science, it is also a religion; for science means a knowledge of
facts, and there can be no higher facts than those which relate to the highest
state which a man may possibly attain, and with which religion deals. [Page
2]

The word religion has a threefold meaning. In its highest aspect it
means the practical application of wisdom, by which the divine element
germinally contained in the constitution of man, is awakened to self-consciousness and reunited as a conscious power to the divine force from
which it emanated in the beginning. This process is taught by those who
are spiritually illuminated, but is beyond the full comprehension of those in
whom the inner life has not yet awakened; for theoretical knowledge can
never become real knowledge without practical experience.

In its second signification
the word religion means a theoretical knowledge
of the essential constitution of man, of the relation existing between man
and the source from which he and everything else in nature originated, of
his final destiny, etc. Here is the battle-ground of the philosophers,
theologians and other speculative minds: the realm of various and
contradictory opinions, caused by a reflection and distortion of the truth
in the minds of individual men.

In its third signification religion is
a system of forms, ceremonies and usages; by which some supposed external
deity is worshipped or propitiated. Here is the realm of sectarian differences,
of bigotry, superstition and ignorance. Here the form is adored ,and kept
sacred, and the principle neglected. The followers of this kind of religion
appeal to the passions of men and cause conflicts and quarrels. It
[Page
3] can have
nothing to do with true religion ; but is evidently opposed to it. [This
mistaking of the form for the principle on the part of the keepers of religion
is, to a great extent, the cause of the materialism of this Age; for the
intellectual classes are wise enough to see that the forms are empty, but
not wise enough to grasp the principle without the form]

There can be no religion
and no higher science than that of the truth relating to the highest mysteries
of the divine element in nature, and these truths are taught in our system
of Alchemy. But it will naturally be asked:
"Why then do our philosophers, theologians and scientists know nothing about
it ? " The answer is that the Dweller of the Threshold guards the door
to the temple of truth and must be conquered before we can enter.

Who is this Dweller
of the Threshold ?

Probably all of our
readers have heard of him. They may have read his description in Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni;
where Glyndon, during the temporary absence of the Adept, impelled by his
own curiosity to learn the forbidden mysteries of the latter, invaded the
laboratory and is frightened out of his wits by the appearance of the horrible
spectre which is henceforth his unwelcome companion for life. When he submits
to the demands of his lower self, and revels in sensual pleasures, the hag disappears;
but whenever he attempts to rise above that level, then she steps forth with
her hateful eyes and seeks to drag him with her long fingers into her cold
embrace. [Page
4]

This Dweller of the Threshold meets
us in many shapes. It is the Cerberus guarding the entrance to Hades;
the Dragon which St. Michael (spiritual will-power) is going to kill;
the Snake which tempted Eve, and whose head will be crushed by the
heel of the woman; the Hobgoblin watching the place where the treasure
is buried, etc. He is the king of evil, who will not permit that within his
kingdom a child should grow up, which might surpass him in power; the Herod before
whose wrath the divine child Christ has to flee into a foreign country,
and is not permitted to return to his home (the soul) until the king (Ambition,
Pride, Vanity, Self-righteousness, etc.) is dethroned or dead. Many times
Christ flees before Herod and cannot return at all; because Herod lives and
rules until the house of life —the temple of the divine Christ—is
destroyed by death. [Many people celebrate the birth of an external
Christ, as an event said to have taken place some eighteen centuries ago;
while they continually drive away the living Christ from their hearts by
the power of Herod. Few only recognize the true Christ and permit him to
enter. The former flatter themselves for having the right belief;
the latter enjoy the true faith.

All such accounts are allegories, representing
a real truth, whose knowledge is of the greatest importance; for it is
the beginning of the GreatWork; and he who does not know
how to begin will not accomplish much.

The Dweller of the
Threshold, the Dragon of mediaeval symbolism, is nothing else but
our own [Page
5] lower semi-animal, animal
or perhaps brutish self, that combination of material and semi-material principles
which form the lower ego, which the great majority of men blindly
and lovingly hug and caress, because they love themselves. Man does not see
its true qualities as long as he clings to it, else he would perhaps be disgusted
with it; but when he attempts to penetrate within the portals of the paradise
of the soul; when his self-consciousness begins to become centered in his
higher self, then the Dweller of the Threshold becomes objective to him,
and he may be terrified at its (his own) ugliness and deformity.

Let us examine the
attributes of that semi-animal self : First of all we see that it is the
residence of animal instincts and passions, which represent themselves to
the interior eye in semi-animal and animal forms; for external forms on the
astral plane are the external expressions of internal principles ; a psychic
activity will produce a corresponding form. In it reside the animal sensations
and the calculating intellect with all its cunning, sophistry and craftiness,
personal will and the love of illusions.

According to the doctrines
of the Rosicrucians the personal intellect and will of man is merely a reflex
of the eternal and universal spiritual Sun of Wisdom (spiritual consciousness)
acting within the sphere of self, in throwing — so to say — a
ray into the mirrors of the minds of men and women. As the light of the[Page
6] terrestrial sun, by being
thrown upon the moon, becomes reflected and modified, and the earth during
night-time — instead of the warm, life-giving sunshine — receives
merely the cold and illusive light of the moon; likewise the material and
superficial prisoner, during the night of his ignorance, sees only the cold
moonshine of his own perverted intellect, and mistakes it for the sun of
eternal truth. Proud of his supposed possession of the true light, he neglects
to seek deeper. He rests self-satisfied in his acquired false learning and
falls a prey to the dragon. He cannot conquer the Dweller of the Threshold,
nor does he wish to do so, because he is himself that Dweller, and is in
love with himself. He does not want to enter the temple, and does not perhaps
even know that the temple exists.

To be better understood,
we will call the light coming directly from the great spiritual Sun of Wisdom Intuition :
that coming to our consciousness through the intellectual working of the
brain Reason . They are originally caused by only one ray; but the
former represents that ray in its purity, the latter as having become colored,
distorted or reversed within the individual sphere of self. In the day-time,
when the sun shines, we do not require the light of the moon. If it were
continually day in our soul, if its atmosphere were not clouded, if we were
living in that pure ethereal state in which one is able to see the light
of wisdom in its[Page
7] fullness and without a doubt,
we would not need to exert our own individual intellect for the purpose of
knowing the truth. The voice of intuition would be heard so plain, that it
could not possibly be misunderstood and we should know all we desired to
know, for we should perceive indirectly and not need to speculate about it.
But man has become immersed in matter. A part of that divine man-forming
ray has become so much differentiated as to be grossly material, and has
lost the capability to see the pure light of the spiritual sun. The consequence
is that we must necessarily have recourse to the feeble moonlight of our
own material reason, to help us to grope along in our darkness. A part of
ourselves — that part which has not yet become grossly material, our higher
self — still sees the light of the sun and hears the Word,
and may communicate it to the lower self, if the latter will listen; but
the more the lower self clings to the sphere of phenomena and sensuality,
the more will it become separated from the higher self; the more will the
light of Intuition become indistinct and uncertain, and the more will the
superficial reasoner become dependent on his individual reasoning intellect
and proud of its illusive power, until he falls a prey to the dragon. [Modern
material science can therefore never become Spiritual science; for the former
is bound to the sphere of phenomena and deals only with them. To become practically
acquainted with spiritual science, men must develop their own inner senses.
Without the ability to perceive interior things, such a science would be
a matter for mere speculation and theory ] [Page
8]

The same line of reasoning may be applied to the Will. Man imagines
he has a will of his own; but his life and will are merely a ray of
the eternal and universal life and will-power, acting within his sphere
of self, becoming colored, distorted and perhaps perverted, by personal
and selfish desires. The ray of the Eternal Will, acting within the
entirely unselfish soul of man, is the legitimate son produced
by the power of Abram, shining into the womb of Sarah (meaning
the pure and unadulterated living well of truth); but the same ray,
acting within Hagar and becoming tainted by selfish desires,
produces the son of the concubine, the Ishmael who must be sent
away into the wilderness to starve and to perish. [ Little indeed
would be the value of the Bible or any other Holy Scripture,
if the stories contained therein were merely accounts of events having
taken place in the lives of certain persons unknown to us, and said
to have been living some thousands of years ago. The Biblical personages
are allegories, representing certain occult powers, and their history
represents certain mysterious processes. The book of Genesis,
if properly understood, is a history of spiritual evolution ]

Man's
selfish love, will, thought, imagination, etc., are all only temporal and
illusory possessions, which would cease if the eternal sun of the spirit
should cease to shine. Likewise, in perfect darkness, all objects are of the
same color; only when the light shines forth, each of them will appear in its
proper hue by reflecting the universal light; according to the peculiar
attributes belonging to their constitutions. But if we conquer the Dweller
of the Threshold — the

[Page
9]

lower self, what shall we obtain
? When Adam,
the material man with all his passions and desires and animal instincts,
has died and disappeared during physical life upon the earth, the spiritual
man, the Christ, arises in his glory.[This event is not to be
expected to take place after physical death, but must take place during life.
Spirit needs the lower life as a ladder to climb up and attain the higher life] In
this spiritual principle rests spiritual consciousness, spiritual life, spiritual
knowledge and spiritual power. Its will and imagination are one with the Will
and Imagination of the all-penetrating universal power, which created all the
forms of the Universe out of its own substance.[The
word Creation
meaning a something coming into existence out of nothing, can only refer
to form. Form is nothing, it is a mere shape of something which existed
before the form was created, it is nothing per se but an illusion] Being
one with the divine power in nature, and knowing itself, it knows all the mysteries
of nature by direct perception and without the slow process of intellectual
theoretical speculation. Being one with the carpenter of
theuniverse it may create forms or destroy them by the power of its spiritual
will.

Man is a Microcosm,
in which are potentially or germinally contained all the powers, essences,
principles and substances contained in the Macrocosm of
the Universe; heaven and hell, God, angels, elementals and devils are Within
him; and whatever is in his constitution may become developed and grow. [The
science of Alchemy teaches the spiritually enlightened man how to deal with
these unseen principles and powers; which, though they are invisible, are nevertheless
substantial for Matter and Spirit are One.
They are both the manifestations of one original power. The manifestation
of that power in its external and visible effects is called Matter;
in its invisible and causative activity it may be called Spirit] [Page
10]

A man
who thoroughly knows himself, knows all nature, a man who can govern himself
with divine wisdom is subject to no other power. He is a God within his
own realm, and being one with the ruling power of the universe, his power
extends as far as the latter.*[ Man can know nothing except that which
exists within himself. We can not see a house before its image has entered
our sphere of consciousness ]

It will therefore be
seen that the true science of Alchemy does not require for its practice an
array of costly chemicals, retorts, stones, bottles and pots; but the materials
with which it deals may be had everywhere for nothing and are within the
reach of every one, even within that of the poorest. The power used in practical
Alchemy is the power of the Spirit, and only those who possess this power
can practice this art; for those who do not possess it, its study will be
a matter of mere speculation. There are three distinct kinds of manifestation
of energy known: (1) Mechanicalforce, acting merely on the
surface of things, and being the slowest of all; every one who is not paralyzed
possesses that power: if he did not possess it, he could not know it, neither
could if be satisfactorily described to him; (2) Chemicalaction,
being far more powerful, because it penetrates into the interior of objects
and produces[Page
11] molecular disintegration.
Bodies which resist mechanical force can be dissolved by it. It is a power
known in its effects to the chemist, while those who are not acquainted with
chemistry know little about it, and the opinions of the latter in regard
to the facts of chemistry are of no practical value; (3) Spiritual activity;
the most powerful of all; because it penetrates into the very center — the
spiritual essence of things — and changes their substance and infuses
them with life. Like the preceding ones it is a force well known to those
who possess it, but unknown to those who do not possess it, however learned
in other departments of Science the latter may be. Those, however, who possess
it, are at present — in our material Age — very few; because
they are the spiritually illuminated ones, the Adepts, or men who
have passed through the process of spiritual regeneration.

They are people in
whom the spiritual soul has grown and developed, penetrating the whole physical
body with its power, enabling them to cure diseases by the touch of their
hands and communicate life to them, to sink their own consciousness into
the minds of other men and read their thoughts, to perceive with the interior
eye things which are hidden to the external sight, and to perform other things
which the ignorant call miracles; because they are miraculous to them
and beyond the power of their understanding.[Page
12]

Do you know what the expression spiritual
regeneration means ? If you do not know it, ask some modern scientist,
and he will probably answer like Nicodemus of old: " How can a man be born
when he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb ? " You
may ask your clergyman, and if he has not passed himself through that process
and become an Adept, the probability is that he will have only a very vague
idea about it. If he belongs to a Christian Church. he will probably
say that spiritual regeneration takes place when the ceremonies of baptism and confirmation are
administered ; that thereby a spiritual power descends through his hands
upon the candidate, who thereupon becomes regenerated. He will say that the
power to confer this spirit has been given to him by having been made a clergyman.
But he does not himself know that power, neither have we ever seen a case
in which a person, after having submitted to such ceremonies, has become
an Adept and endowed with the power to heal and to work miracles;
nor is it reasonable to suppose that the UniversalSpirit — the Holy
Ghost. could be monopolized by any class of people or by a Church, and
be made an article of trade, or that one man's spiritual evolution could
be made to depend on the will and pleasure of another human being. Everything
in nature takes place according to natural laws. Trees and animals grow when
the necessary conditions are given; intellectual [Page
13] development requires intellectual
food; spiritual development requires the growth of the spirit. Grapes do
not grow on thistles, and men are not born from cows. No one can give to
another that which he does not himself possess. A truly divine person
must be in possession of divine powers, and he cannot possess and use such
powers without being conscious of it. Oh for a clergyman who is really a divine !
He would be a real spiritual guide. But to be a true spiritual guide requires
more than mere talk about spiritual things, which one has merely learned
from hearsay and knows practically nothing about. [Paracelsus says: " The
wearing of a black coat, or the possession of a piece of paper signed by
some human authority, does not make a man divine, who acts wisely, because
wisdom comes from God. The knowledge which our clergymen possess is not obtained
by them from the Father, but they learn it from each other. He who desires
to learn the truth, must be able to see it, and not be satisfied with descriptions
of it received from others. The highest power of the intellect, if it is
not illuminated by wisdom, is only a high grade of animal intellect, and
will perish in time; but the intellect animated by the love of the Supreme
is the intellect of the Angels and will live in eternity." (See FundamentaSapientae.)

JacobBoehme, the great
Christian mystic, says: " Feign and dissemble, shout, sing, preach
and teach as much as you please; but if the spirit within you is
not alive, all the noise you make will amount to nothing. A Christ
belongs to no sect, and needs no artificial church. He carries his
church within his soul; he does not quarrel or dispute with others
about any difference of opinion, he desires nothing else but his
God."
(Regeneration.)]

There are, however – even
in this age of materialism–men who have passed or are passing through
this spiritual regeneration, of which the Bible says that no one can (consciously)
enter the Kingdom of God, except he be reborn of the Spirit. They say that
spiritual regeneration or initiation has three [Page
14] stages. With the first spark
of an interior thought, penetrating to the center of the soul and
awakening the spiritualconsciousness of man, the germ is laid
for the development of the inner spiritual man. If the new-born Christ is
continually fed with the proper nutriment (of the soul) and not driven away
by Herod, it will grow ; a new and inner life (unknown before) will come
into action and penetrate all the parts of the physical body. Certain mysterious
processes, which are not communicated to the uninitiated, take place, and
in this consists the true baptism with the waterof truth or
the attainment of spiritual consciousness, having nothing to do with
any external ceremony or administration of water by sprinkling, dipping or
otherwise. It consists in the unnatural man becoming natural, in bringing
his will and imagination (thought) into harmony with that of the Universal
Spirit, and becoming able to recognize the truth by direct interior perception.

The second is the fastening
of the Spirit, the Baptism of blood, when the inner life becomes fixed
through the power of the Word — a process during which certain
physiological changes take place within the organization of the physical
body. The third is the Baptism with the living fire of the Spirit;
whereby the candidate for immortality attains spiritual power and becomes
able to exercise it according to his will. Then will he be able to control
the organic functions of his body (involuntaryfunctions), [Page
15] because he will be master
over the functions of his soul, the physical organism being merely an external
expression of the former. He will be able to act from the interior to the
exterior, from the center to the periphery; while the inexperienced waste
their strength in useless attempts to reverse that process. To practice Alchemy
and to exercise spiritual power, one must be spiritually developed. The first
step to this development is the conquering of the Dweller of the Threshold,
and the key to the position is the displacement of the love of self by the
love of eternal Good, which finds its expression in the Universal
Brotherhood of Humanity, the fundamental principle upon which the TheosophicalSociety rests.